Thursday, December 15, 2016

Multimedia and Transmedia

Multimedia is a piece of content that uses a variety of media forms in itself, as a single piece of content, an example of which include 3D software applications and live software programs. PowerPoint presentations, and online encyclopedia like Wikipedia has provided variety in the way contents are carried across from media platforms.   Transmedia on the other hand refers to a story or experience that is distributed via a variety of different media channels, meaning you have multiple pieces of content out of one story an example of which includes the hit movie Star Wars.
                Multimedia has for a long time played a significant role in our society. According to Richard Wise and Jeannette Steemers of “Multimedia; Acritical Introduction,” recognizing that computers can execute commands at an enormously faster speed than any one human user, a system was designed whereby one central computer stimulates many small computers. Today such an idea has grown and has been adapted by corporate organizations and institutions as well as governments from all over the world as evidenced in the just ended American elections. And that is not all, Author Henry Jenkins in “Convergence Culture; Where Old and New Media Collide”, observes that “the 2004 campaign was a period of innovation and experimentation in the use of new media technologies and popular-culture based strategies”. This was also evidenced in the historic 2008 election as President Obama and his team used multimedia to organize grassroots and the election base in the remotest parts of the country. Multimedia thus served as a platform for interaction, collaboration and incorporation.
2008 Presidential Election Map
Above, media is used to exhibit in detail the margins in the historic 2008 elections.
Credit: Karl Munchausen

                Modern Technology has shaped the way we distribute channels and contents. It has allowed adaptation, translation and transformation of contents from one end to the other and still fulfill same or similar purposes from politics, entertainment, music and more.  It is important to note that multimedia and transmedia sometimes works hand in hand. For example as noted by Jenkins, political candidates may build their base on the internet but they need television to win elections.

Citations
Henry Jenkins, “Convergence Culture; Where Old and New Media Collide”. New York University Press, 2008.
Richard Wise, Jeanette Steemer, “Multimedia: A Critical Introduction” Routledge 2002
Karl Munchausen, http://prevarication.net/2010/06/how-demo-crats-are-hijacking-america/


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